Latest Magazine focuses on the built environment

The just-released Aalto University Magazine 21 examines human-centered built environments.

In the column Openings, Vice President, Professor Antti Ahlava points out that architecture is more than just the designing of buildings: “In part, it defines how and in what kind of an atmosphere people come together. At Aalto University, the ways in which our facilities are utilised support working together more and more closely, a culture of sharing and diversity.”

The main article deals with urban traffic planning, which involves much more than identifying the fastest commute routes or the adoption of the latest technologies. Aalto alumna, Director of Transport and Traffic Planning with the City of Helsinki Reetta Putkonen and Professors Claudio Roncoli and Milos Mladenovich from the School of Engineering present their views.

In an interview, Art Coordinator Outi Turpeinen tells us about the percentage principle for art and how it was first realised at Aalto in the Dipoli art collection. In future, about one percent of the budget for the university’s building and renovation projects will be invested in acquiring art.

The Who column meets with alumnus Kai Wartiainen, an outspoken architect, whose design work is steered by ecological concerns and the pursuit of happiness.

The magazine also contains the supplement An ideal house. In it, eight experts tell us how we should be building in the future and what the house of their dreams looks like.

The On science article focuses on laser scanning, a rapidly proliferating measuring technique that can be used to build precise three-dimensional models of the environment and buildings as well as of people and animals.